Tricks to take the mud out of the Plexi amps!

cragginshred

cragginshred

Fractal Fanatic
Lets face it dialing out the mud in a Plexi can be tricky. I have always turned the bass down but the other night I turned 'Normal gain' down and it helped provide string separation and that 'spank' a plexi has. This also allows me to get some tones with less gain.
Figured I would share and see if anyone has any other tricks?
 
Turn down the Power Tube Hardness or turn up the Speaker Impedence. You can play with the Cabinet Resonance as well.
 
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Tonedeaf said:
Any amp. BTW, I meant Cabinet Resonance on the Speaker page of the Amp Block. I changed my post. Most people seem to ignore this, but it's a very powerful tone shaping tool.
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Thanks for the clarification
I asked about specifics amp because the majority of them load with a tone of Gain and not all sound good with gain dialed back. They get thin and not real amp like at all.

Any IR's you recommend specifically?
 
so a few tricks that i use:
  • playing with the speaker impedance curves on edit, sometimes something you would normally think would work works perfectly. choosing a different impedance model sometimes helps, even with high gain chaotic stuff i really dig the curves from the 4x12 Brit TV
  • a cool trick that i got from reader the wiki was the Herbert mid cut which is a filter block in between the amp and cab settings are peaking, freq: 400hz, q:1.4, and i start with gain at -2.5db (anything cutting more than 3.5db you should try to shape in the amp block)
  • input eq section in the amp block is fun, the definition control acts like a tilt eq and pulls some lowend out, while giving you note clarity
  • - try a drive block using either the hoodoo drive or t808 models with very little gain, but running the tone knob around 7-8 and the level around 6.5-8 in front of the amp block, you can compensate for the added gain, by pulling the gain down in the amp block
  • - output eq section also help shape a lot.
and lastly​
  • - just try out different IR's, the VH cabs (love the 412 71 orange and the 2 marshalls ValhallIR did) cut a lot. just try a bunch of different cabs, there are literally hundreds of IRs on here and they can almost always be used for something.
 
dunkus612 said:
so a few tricks that i use:
  • playing with the speaker impedance curves on edit, sometimes something you would normally think would work works perfectly. choosing a different impedance model sometimes helps, even with high gain chaotic stuff i really dig the curves from the 4x12 Brit TV
  • a cool trick that i got from reader the wiki was the Herbert mid cut which is a filter block in between the amp and cab settings are peaking, freq: 400hz, q:1.4, and i start with gain at -2.5db (anything cutting more than 3.5db you should try to shape in the amp block)
  • input eq section in the amp block is fun, the definition control acts like a tilt eq and pulls some lowend out, while giving you note clarity
  • - try a drive block using either the hoodoo drive or t808 models with very little gain, but running the tone knob around 7-8 and the level around 6.5-8 in front of the amp block, you can compensate for the added gain, by pulling the gain down in the amp block
  • - output eq section also help shape a lot.
and lastly​
  • - just try out different IR's, the VH cabs (love the 412 71 orange and the 2 marshalls ValhallIR did) cut a lot. just try a bunch of different cabs, there are literally hundreds of IRs on here and they can almost always be used for something.
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Thanks I do the OD into the front for sure. When you said 'there are hundreds of IR's on here' are you talking about free ones on the axe ex change?
 
cragginshred said:
Thanks for the clarification
I asked about specifics amp because the majority of them load with a tone of Gain and not all sound good with gain dialed back. They get thin and not real amp like at all.

Any IR's you recommend specifically?
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My faves for Plexis are Legacy #71 4x12 D120 and two you'll find on an Axe Change search. Fractal Mad Oak Basketweave and and one named V2-BOA-d-D202-C2
 
Realistic stage volume is our friend when adjusting the amp block. If it's not loud enough then the Fletcher-Munsen effect will kick in and we overcompensate when turning the EQ knobs, and then it won't sound right when we're at real volume.

The "INPUT DRIVE + OVERDRIVE + MASTER VOLUME" section in the Amp block page in the Wiki is good. Heck the whole page is good to read several times.

Cliff's tech notes are worth reading through too because there's a lot of information useful for adjusting the sound.
 
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I used to GAS for a real Marshall back in my younger days. And I ended up owning a JCM900 50 watt half stack, which was ok. But compared to the other guitarist's 100 watt Plexi, nah. Then I switched to Mesa amps, and have been a huge fan ever since.

But I've yet to find a Marshall in the Axe that I like enough to dial it in to my tastes, since it's easier to just try other amps. I really like Mesa's take on EL34 amps however, never owned a real one, but the Triple Crest model is one of my favorites. The Freidman's are damn nice-sounding too.
I realize that's not what you asked, but I wanted to just say that with so many amps to choose from, if the one you want isn't doing it for you, there's probably another that will. One thing I keep discovering about this gear, is you get to have all sorts of stuff to try out, that you probably would've never even considered playing, let alone buying, in the real world.

Another thing I'll do is swap a different amp into a factory preset, without changing anything else, and that too opens up some nice changes to the tone, without having to fool with impedance curves, or power tube hardness, or the like. I've even gotten some cool tones from non go-to amps by swapping out the Tone Stack. I swapped into a Fender amp a Mesa tone stack and was really surprised by the tone. (But I stupidly turned off the unit before saving the preset, so I don't remember which one it was.)
 
RevDrucifer said:
The master volume is always a good place start as well. While it might sound great maxed out, with some IR’s it doesn’t translate, or at least hasn’t for me, in every situation.
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I do that by default with many of the traditional NMV amps. I also find better results and tone backing the
Input Trim down a bit.
 
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